“If not forgotten, they are not gone”

NOTE: The manhunt for the killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is continuing this morning. For my reflections on his death yesterday, see my Daily Article Special Edition, “Charlie Kirk fatally shot at speaking event in Utah.” Please join me in praying for his wife and young children and for our nation in this dark hour.

I hate this anniversary each year. I wake up knowing that I will see the horrific images in the news all over again. The brilliant blue morning sky against which the Twin Towers stood as the airplanes flew into them. The assault on the Pentagon, our national paragon of military might. The plane crash in Pennsylvania and the ensuing stories of passenger courage that thwarted their hijackers.

I remember where I was on that tragic morning. So do you. So will we always.

On this day twenty-four years ago, 2,976 Americans were killed and thousands more were injured in the deadliest terrorist attacks in our nation’s history.

But here’s another fact to remember: 7,085 Americans have died and more than fifty-three thousand have been wounded because of this day.

“A new and different war”

President George W. Bush stated a month after 9/11, “The world has come together to fight a new and different war . . . A war against all those who seek to export terror, and a war against those governments that support or shelter them.” Over the next twenty years, nearly three million Americans served in what has come to be known as the Global War on Terror, including those I numbered earlier who died or were injured in battle.

The victims of 9/11 woke up that Tuesday morning with no idea that it would be their last morning. None of them volunteered for what happened to them. Part of our shock and grief is that their cruel deaths were so unexpected and senseless.

By contrast, those who died in the War on Terror that ensued did volunteer for what happened to them. They chose to serve their fellow Americans in the full knowledge that their choice could cost them the “last full measure of devotion,” in Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words.

The families they left are paying the price of their courage still today. As a husband and the father of two sons, I cannot begin to imagine the suffering of those who lost wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. Every day that goes by is another day with an emptiness that will go unfilled. Every birthday of the loved one they lost, every holiday, every significant marker passes with a seat at the table still vacant.

They, no less than the brave soldiers they mourn, are our nation’s heroes today.

“Make this a nation worth dying for”

It falls to us to respond in two ways.

First, we must never forget what happened on this day and because of this day. 9/11 can never become a day like 9/10. Those who fought and died in the conflicts that followed that terrible morning, and those who suffer their pain still today, must never be forgotten or ignored. Partisan views of the war and the administrations that waged it must not obscure the sacrifice of those who served in it.

In The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, acclaimed historian David McCullough writes:

“Gone but not forgotten” is the old expression for departed heroes. But if not forgotten, they are not gone.

Second, we must strive to be a nation worthy of such sacrifice.

A significant military anniversary never passes without calling to mind for me a conversation I had some years ago with a veteran scarred by wounds received in battle. When I thanked him for his sacrificial service, he looked into my eyes and said, “Just make this a nation worth dying for.”

McCullough notes:

There’s a line in one of the letters written by John Adams where he’s telling his wife, Abigail, at home, “We can’t guarantee success [in this war] but we can do something better. We can deserve it.”

What JFK said we “cannot afford to be”

What can we do to “deserve” the sacrifice of so many who served our nation, protected our freedoms, and died that we might live?

In one sense, there is nothing we can do to deserve such gifts. Those who died in the War on Terror and in all the wars that preceded it obviously did not do so because of anything you and I can do today. Their deaths preceded our reflections this morning by years and even centuries. Their choice to serve was an act of grace, and grace can never be deserved, only received.

But in another sense, there is much we can do to be a nation worthy of such sacrifice. In biblical terms, we can seek to be a people God is able to bless (cf. Psalm 33:12). To this end, we can humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our “wicked ways,” knowing that he will then hear us, forgive us, and “heal our land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

We can intercede for our leaders and nation (1 Timothy 2:1–2), praying and working each day to be the salt and light our decaying and darkened culture needs so desperately (Matthew 5:13–16). And we can seek to be the change we wish to see.

David McCullough was the keynote speaker for an event my wife and I attended in Dallas on the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The historian shared with us some of the slain president’s most significant statements, among them his assertion:

“This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.”

If you agree, consider Mr. Kennedy’s most famous words, spoken in his inaugural address more than forty years before 9/11 but just as relevant on that tragic day and today: “Ask not what your country will do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

What can you “do for your country” today?

Quote for the day: 

“To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” —George Washington

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